We had lots of company over the weekend while we celebrated York College Homecoming – one of my favorite weekends of the year! One of the meals I served for our guests was “Huge Hamburgers” with potato wedges, grapes, veggies, olives and cookies. The Huge Hamburger idea came from one of our boys when we were planning the menu for our guests. Ever since I made this big burger to feature in our curriculum (while you’re learning the letter Hh, of course!), my boys beg me to make it. The bun (Kings Hawaiian that I find at our regular grocery store or at Walmart) is not very healthy, but boy is it good. It’s a real treat, and I find that when I have lots of company, I have to make compromises on the food we eat so that I’ll stay sane. I want to enjoy my company – not spend time making huge hamburger buns while everyone else is visiting!
Here’s our menu for this week:
Sunday, October 16
Oatmeal, pears
Sub sandwiches with all the fixings, raw veggies with ranch dip, grapes
High School Huddle: Italian pasta bake, green beans, honey whole wheat bread, apple crisp
Monday, October 17
Pancake sausage muffins, applesauce
Tuna casserole, peas
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad
Tuesday, October 18
Sweet potato streusel muffins, bananas
Easy noodle stir fry, fruit salad
Turkey sausage bean stew, sourdough biscuits
Wednesday, October 19
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Chicken noodle soup, carrots
Shepherds pie, tossed salad
Thursday, October 20
Breakfast burritos, creamy orange coolers
Crock-pot experiment (for the new crock-pot recipe series)
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans
Friday, October 21
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Salmon patties, potato wedges, peas
Homemade pizza, fruit
Saturday, October 22
Homemade donuts
Leftovers
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad
I may be wrong, but I do believe this week may be a little calmer around our house. We will have some company here and there, but if you can believe it, I think we only have one soccer game during the next few days. Whatever shall I do? (Yes, I know – laundry. You weren’t supposed to answer that. It was rhetorical.)
I make party subs on a large (16″) round pizza pan for my husband’s gatherings (work parties, football, etc.). I make the bun (homemade) into a large dount shape (hmmmm… maybe I’ll have to experiment making a huge donut sometime – yummy!) and ill it with turkey, ham, roast beef, provolone, american cheese, lettuce, and tomato. His friends ALWAYS ask him where he got it from and are quite impressed when he tells them I made it.
I’d like to compromise on food, and sometimes I do, but the one thing I won’t compromise on is GMO’s. I just can’t support other’s playing God with His perfect creation. I’m 100% opposed to cloning. *sigh* Until or unless someone starts making non-gmo giant round sub buns, I suppose I’ll have to keep making them, but I had no idea you could buy buns that large anyway. Kinda makes my subs feel a littel less original! LOL!
I always remind myself that it is what we eat the majority of the time that keeps our bodies healthy and running well. A healthy body can handle the occasional treat or compromise. :) I do the same when we have lots of company, and I don’t feel bad because we eat so well the majority of the week.
We have to compromise on occasion too. When we have a lot of people over we make huge subs on homemade italian or french bread and they are always a big hit. Love the big hamburger idea.
How do you serve the big hamburger? I might do this for a volleyball team supper.
I slice it into six or eight triangles, depending on how big I want the servings – or on how far I need the burger to stretch!
This may sound silly, but I was wondering if you make one large hamburger patty or several smaller ones? I am thinking if I tried to make a large one it might break while trying to flip it? I love the idea of a huge hamburger, though.
I make one patty – about 1 1/2 pounds of meat. Flipping it is TRICKY – you have to make sure it’s fully cooked on one side before you attempt the flip. Sometimes mine breaks and I try to just reform it when I put it onto the bun. :)
Laura;
How do you make a burger that big? How much meat is there and how do you actually cook it. It would be a fun treat for my crew but don’t get the process to make it happen. Please enlighten me. If I was there I would come over and do your laundry for you.
I’ve found that 1 1/2 pounds of meat is the right amount for this size bun. I press it into a skillet to form a big patty. It’s best to let it cook on low for quite a while until the first side is cooked very thoroughly. It’s difficult to flip, but much easier when the first side is cooked well. Flipping is tricky, sometimes mine breaks when I turn it, so then I have a patty in two or three pieces. :)
And I WISH you could come do laundry with me!! We could sit and visit while we fold towels!!!
Printed out the layered enchilada casserole for next week. Looks so good and easy, and doable with shredded chicken (reminds me slightly though of a cookbook I have – 6 Ingredients or Less – from which I made numerous recipes, not one of which my family appreciated at all. I finally gave up on that book!),
Oh idea idea! You could make it a huge hamburger sloppy joe! That would eliminate the flipping! Oh and a sloppy joe on that yummy Hawaiian bun! *swoon*
Too bad I’m in China & probably couldn’t find any of these ingredients at the store! LOL
Ooh, good idea!
Hey Laura, looking at your menu and more specifically your honey whole wheat loaf, which I’ve been making now for the past few weeks, I wondered what you find to be the best & freshest way to store the bread. I recently made your buns, hamburger buns that is ;). Most of them I froze but the ones I kept in an airtight container seemed to mold pretty quickly, maybe 3-5 days later. thanks for any help.
If you store them in a freezer bag in the fridge they should
last a bit longer! :)
Those breakfast pizzas look good. I had somehow missed them before. I think I am going to have to try those!
Hey ! we do the apple thing too- lots of apples – applesauce, frozen apple slices to bake with later on ( I dip them in a salt solution or lemon juice and water first) slices with cinnamon and a bit of raw sugar etc.. to freeze for pie and crisp filling, caramel apple jam, dried apples…. LOTS of apples